Solitude In This Hearts-Feud
by Prince Hydron is a Twink
Summary: Isaac Algar is a regular palace worker doing regular things. Seeing the Vexos build and tear each other apart, and watching the world crumble around him, that was just a normal occurrence in his life. All he was to do was clean the walls after the Vexos tore the palace apart with their mayhem, and patch the Prince's bruises up when he needed to. So why did he long for more?
1. A Prologue, of sorts

**Solitude** :  
 _Noun_.

The state of being completely and utterly alone.

* * *

The Vestal Palace was… hectic.

Isaac's mother didn't usually bring him to work with her, but being only a palace maid, her pay wasn't always enough for her to hire a babysitter, and despite Isaac's insistence that at seven years old he could look after himself, she refused to leave him alone for hours at a time, never mind whole days when he didn't have school to attend.

His mother had hoped, quietly, that the Queen's death (gods bless her soul in eternal serenity) and subsequent improvement of her job position to the young Prince's personal care maid would increase her pay, but, well.

Isaac walks as close to his mother as he can, warily watching the early morning rush of the palace, terrified of losing his mother, or of being trampled by the activity as everyone worked to bring the day together.

Here he was.

Luckily, he finds that the closer they came to the sleeping quarters of the palace, the less the chaos, until there was little else but him, his mother, and the palace guards.

He watches as his mother smiles tightly at the guard stationed in front of the Prince's quarters, arms full from the breakfast tray she had picked up on her way. The guard nods to her, and opens the door, allowing the two to step inside.

Isaac loses his breath.

The room is.. Spectacular.

Larger than the entire flat he lived in, Isaac's mind could barely wrap itself around the room. But despite the size, it seems… Terribly empty, with hardly anything in the room aside from the nightstand and enormous bed.

And on the bed, a tiny child curled up on top the covers, so small in its largeness Isaac wouldn't have noticed he was there if he hadn't been looking for him.

Prince Hydron.

Isaac's mother walks swiftly over to the bed, Isaac nearly having to run to keep up with her, and places the food tray onto the nightstand, before gently touching her hand to the Prince's side, and he stills so quickly it's only then that Isaac realizes he was shaking at all.

The Prince's head raises, just slightly from the pillow he was laid on, and his face is streaked with tears, a light smattering of bruises across his cheeks.

Isaac hears his mother sigh in what almost sounds like anger as confusion clouds his thoughts.

How- how could the Prince be hurt like this? He wracked his memory for any recent public executions and found it lacking. Harming the only child on the Throne, only barely a year after the death of the Queen, should cause a very public and very painful death immediately. He'd learned what happened to traitors to the Throne in the first weeks of school, so why hadn't anything been done about this?

"Hydron," Isaac's mother says, gently, and he's startled to hear her refer to him by name . "My dear Prince, how does this happen to you so frequently?"

The boy curls in on himself tighter, and buries his face back into the pillow. Isaac's mother sighs again, sadder this time.

"My dear Prince, it's time to get up for the day." She moves her arms to lift him slightly from the bed, and he seems to give up, moving to sit instead of laying down, and waits for Isaac's mother to hand him the tray with his breakfast on it. He eats slowly, as if stalling for time, and never once looks at the other boy in his room.

Isaac wasn't sure what he expected of the child Prince, but whatever it was, it wasn't this.

When he finishes eating, Isaac's mother examines the Prince's bruises. They trail across his arms as well as his face, and he insists that's all there is to it. Isaac's mother doesn't seem to believe it, but let's it go, moving to get some light makeup to cover up where his outfit will leave the marks exposed.

Watching the skill of his mother's hand, and how easily the Prince let's her do this, Isaac wonders how often this happens.

His mother finishes her work, and the Prince gets off the bed, finally looking Isaac in the eyes as he walks towards the door.

For a split second, he looks sadder than any child he's ever met, before his face smooths out to an emptiness Isaac didn't think was possible on the face of someone only a few months his senior.

He watches him walk out the door, trailing slowly behind with his mother, and hears her whisper a few words barely audible.

"He's only just a child."

Isaac's heart aches.

He bites his lip, and looking up at his mother's face, sad in a way he had never seen, makes a hasty last minute decision.

He runs forward towards the Prince, stopping just a foot behind him, nearly at the door. The Prince turns towards him, confusion flickering across his face, and Isaac takes a deep breath, smiles, and lifts his hand in a small, nervous wave.

"Hi. My names Isaac. Do you need a friend?"


	2. Hello world, I'm your wild guy!

Isaac's hand brushes across Hydron's cheek, feather light and barely touching him as he moves to fix up the makeup on the Prince's face. He knows Hydron doesn't like it when he touches him, so he tries to be as gentle as possible when he had to in moments like this, but his discomfort was getting noticeably stronger with time, and it confused him to no end.

He'd offered to teach the Prince how to do his makeup himself, but had been turned down, which only confused him more .

But, Hydron had to show his face today, and the little scars peeking out from his hairline had to be covered.

He glances over his work and hums slightly, content with the work, and picks his glasses up from the desk they were resting on, placing them on his face before moving to put everything away.

Hydron finally relaxes in his chair as Isaac moves away, though Isaac can feel his stare on him even when his back is turned.

"Isaac," Hydron drawls, voice slow and nonchalant. "Do you recall whatever it was Volt and Lync said was so important they had to request a face to face meeting instead of simply sending a report?"

"They only told me it had something to do with the Resistance, Hydron." Isaac replies, turning around to glance and Hydron as he speaks. Yup, twirling his hair. He was annoyed. Isaac quickly changes his mind on which of Hydron's coats to grab from the closet, and takes out his favorite white and blue one instead of light brown. Even the change in color could improve Hydron's mood from whatever was bothering him.

Hydron lifts himself from his seat and spreads his arms out as Isaac walks towards him, allowing him to put it on him, managing to look completely bored even while stiffening up slightly at the tiny contact when Isaac's fingers brush him.

Isaac didn't know why he bothered with the act when he'd had nearly eight years to learn his tells, but there was no point in asking him when he was already upset.

He steps away again, and nods to himself.

The Prince looks fit for the Throne. No matter what others might say.

He gives Hydron a mock bow, dipping lower to the ground than their friendship warranted, gesturing an arm to the door as the older boy snorts at his theatrics. Little hypocrite.

"Shall we go, my Prince?"

A smile tugs at Hydron's face. Success!

Hydron steps toward Isaacs bowed form and brings his hand down from his hair, offering it to him as if he were greeting someone at a formal gathering. Isaac takes the hand lightly, moving to bow over it instead of to the floor, and feels the fingers twitch, slightly.

But when he glances to the Prince's face, the soft smile is still there.

"Lead the way, faithful servant."

* * *

Lync flies into the room like a feather in the breeze, swiftly moving to where Hydron was seated on his throne, and falls into a deep, sarcastic bow, arms spread wide at his sides.

"I come with news of much importance , my Prince."

Volt, following not too far behind, gives the young teen an annoyed look, before kneeling into the proper bow, one leg to the floor.

Isaac makes eye contact with Lync as he follows suite. He rolls his eyes. Isaac rolls his back, in the opposite direction.

"Well? What is it?" Hydron demands more than asks as he twirls a lock of hair, bored annoyance back on his face in full force.

"We encountered the Resistance earlier today," Volt says, head bowed politely, voice perfectly neutral. "It seems they have been… recruiting."

"And how, exactly, is this of any concern?" Hydron says back, annoyance clearly increasing.

"The recruits were…" He trails off, hesitant. He looks at Isaac, and he makes a 'go on' motion of his hand. "They were humans, sir. One of them fought with the Pyrus Dragonoid."

The twirling stops. So does Isaacs heart.

"Are you telling me the truth, Volt?" Hydron says, and his voice is empty.

"Yes sir. Lync can back me up on this."

The boy nods his agreement as Hydron and Isaac look to him.

Hydron sits straight in his throne, hand moving to rest under his chin.

"Huh."

Isaac looks behind them, to where the statues of five Bakugan stood. Only one was missing from the collection.

"Volt? Lync?" Hydron's voice is still empty of emotion. "Why did you fail to collect the Dragonoid for me?"

"We weren't expecting him, Prince Hydron." Lync picks up where Volt falters. "We thought the Pyrus Dragonoid was turned into the planet's core, and were only in the area to investigate a source of sudden energy influx. We didn't have the Bakugan for the fight and lost."

"Huh." Hydron says again, and okay, Isaac is getting seriously worried now. "Leave."

"Your Highness?" Volt looks up to them, startled.

"I said," Hydron replies, tightly, teeth clenched and knuckles white. "To leave ."

The two Vexos glance at each other, and quickly rise to their feet, nearly running to the door. Lync looks over his shoulder to Isaac on his dash out, and Isaac shrugs, at a loss for what to do.

"Hydron-" Isaac starts, as the two exit, but is interrupted by the Prince standing up and all but marching to his bedroom.

"I'd like to be alone for now, alright, Isaac?"

"I- okay, Hydron." He frowns, worried, but the Prince is as stubborn as his father, and there's no point in fighting to stay. "Call me when you need me."

Hydron flashes him a strained smile, and closes the door behind him with a loud ' bang '.

Well, that went wonderfully.

* * *

Isaac walks into the Vexos main recreational room a few hours later, legs tired from the treadmill he'd been on just a few minutes earlier, and is immediately attacked, thrown to the floor by a person leaping onto him with the will to kill.

"Ugh, dammit, Shadow!" He says, flailing around as Shadow holds him to the ground, desperate to get away from the hell he knows is coming. The older teen sticks his tongue out and Isaac goes completely limp, horrific threat made.

He looks over at the sofas for help, but Volt barely glances up from his novel, and Mylene only appraises his situation shortly, before going back to watch Vestal Extreme Home Makeover, concerns clearly in more important matters. Fine. Watch him try to help them when their lives are in danger.

Lync crows his joy from the sofa, a leaps over, walking towards them with his legs kicking unnecessarily high at each step, before stopping in front of them with one posed as far up as it would go, body positioned at a 'T' shape.

"Foolish man. You thought you could avoid my plots, but no one ever gets away from the mighty Lync Volan! Especially not when he looks like he's had a bad time and needs to be messed with!"

Isaac glares up at the boy from under Shadow's arm, making his hate as obvious as he could.

"You'll never get away with this, vile fiend!"

"Oh, but little do you know!" Lync swings his leg to the ground, body moving with the momentum until he was hovering slightly over Isaac, and reached out a hand to pluck his glasses right off his face. "I already have."

Lync straightens up while Shadow cackles, placing the glasses on his face, tossing his hair and making a mock pose with his hands on his hips. "Ooh, look at me, I'm Izzy and I'm a special boy that the Prince looves soo much, even though I never actually do my job!"

"My job is to make sure Hydron doesn't drop dead and all of you don't destroy this place. And considering neither of those have happened yet, I think I'm doing pretty good." He manages to squirm an arm out from Shadow's death grip and points a finger at Lync. "Also, Hydron doesn't 'love' me. We're just good friends."

Lync snorts at him, rolling his eyes.

Volt snorts from his book. Shadow starts laughing harder. Even Mylene gives him a brief disbelieving look, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh c'mon, guys! With all the time I spend around him, I think I'd notice!"

Lync rolls his eyes again. Little pest. "Implying you 'think' at all." He makes quotation marks in the air and everything. Isaac was going to beat him up once he was freed, risk of losing his job be damned.

"Well, anyways ," Lync spins around, walking over to the empty sofa placed next to the wall, and jumps up onto it, grabbing the loose air vent cover placed above it and throwing it to the side. He looks back at Isaac, tossing his hair again and smirking. "I win."

"You might have won the battle, but you'll never win the war!" Isaac shouts after him as he disappears into the vents. Shadow finally rolls off of him and Isaac stands up, brushing fake dust off his hoodie.

Dammit. Those were his second best pair of glasses, and now the little rat bastard was going to get dust all over them, and Isaacs bulk made him unable to crawl in there and drag him out.

"You know," Volt says, finally looking up from his book. "He's just going to go to his bedroom. If you leave now, you can probably intercept him and get them back."

Isaac hums, and glances over to the T.V. Hah, Vestal Ty Pennington has to design a house with a horse-beast theme. Poor guy.

Wait, Volt was looking at him like he expects him to say something. Shit, what did Volt just say? Oh gods, Isaac was going to have a anxiety attack.

"Uh," he says, eloquently.

Shadow sees his confused panic and barks a laugh, swinging an arm around Isaac's shoulders. Ugh, he was going to have to really wash this hoodie now.

"Bird bitch's going to his room, if you run like hell down there you can catch him before he hides your glasses and beat the shit outta him."

Isaac considers this. He puts a hand to his chin, thoughtfully. He looks at Shadow.

"You wanna help me?"

"Ooh, betray the traitor?" Shadow jumps to the door, grinning wildly. "Count me in!"

Isaac grins back at him, and they high-five, before racing off to the Vexos' sleeping quarters.

Ah, comradery, what a wonderful thing.

Now, if only he could convince Hydron to drop his shields and stop being a bitch long enough to have fun with them, for once.

* * *

 **Notes** :

And here's the first chapter! *throws confetti*  
Our boys (minus Hydron, plus Shadow) have fun, but how long can that last? Better enjoy it while enjoying's possible! (Looking at you, Hydron.)

Also, considering checking this out on AO3, for my fun tags and a posted art link!


End file.
